T Boone Pickens Dumps Wind Power From His Energy Plans

T Boone Pickens, the Texas tycoon who made a splash with a plan to wean the US from foreign oil imports through a combination of wind power and natural gas plays, has dumped wind power from his touted plan.

That's due in large part to the failure to secure transmission line access for his proposed wind power projects in Texas.

Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens' TV commercials blasted the airwaves in 2008 with his big idea to get America off foreign oil imports: natural gas and wind energy.

Two years later, let’s just make that natural gas.

Since the billionaire’s plans for the world’s largest wind farm fell apart in the Texas Panhandle, Pickens has edited his much-hyped “Pickens Plan” to focus primarily on his other big business interest: natural gas.

Touting 1.7 million Pickens Plan supporters, he’s now pushing Congress to pass legislation that would offer incentives to convert 18-wheelers and fleet vehicles to run on compressed natural gas, or CNG, rather than diesel. He said if just 8 million of those trucks switch to the domestic-produced fuel, it could cut in half the amount of foreign oil imported by the United States.

“I’m all American,” Pickens said on Friday. “Any energy in America beats

The US could see significant improvement in fuel economy on long haul tractor trailers (18-wheelers) even before new EPA rules take effect if they adopted any number of aerodynamic adjustments that can improve fuel economy significantly for relatively little cost.

Pickens' plan would serve to boost Pickens' bottom line, and converting vehicles from diesel to natural gas would impose hefty costs on vehicle owners; improving aerodynamics would be a greater savings at lesser cost.